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Run Around Utah Lake – 84 miles

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Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Utah.  Many rivers, streams, and creeks flow into it and there is only one outlet near my home, the Jordan River.   It is 12 miles across at its widest point and about 21 miles long, with an additional seven miles of soggy farm land near its inlet.  Archaeology finds indicate that there have been settlements near the lake and river as far back as 3,000 years.  Mormon settlers established the first modern settlement in 1849. In the 1800s the fish in the lake was overharvested and restocked with non-native species.  Pollution has been a problem over the years as raw sewage was dumped into the lake as late as 1967.  Some pollution problems still remain.  The lake is very shallow with the maximum depth about 14 feet with the average about 10 feet deep.

Each year hundreds of cyclists ride all the way around Utah Lake using a 100-mile route for a “century” ride.  There is no established trail that runs near the shores of the lake, so roads are used.  Most of the route around the lake is rural farm land with the exception of about ten miles on the east side through the Provo-Orem metropolitan area.

In 2013 I got the idea of running all the way around Utah Lake in a day and was the first to accomplish that on November 15, 2013, using a route of about 82 miles. See video of that adventure.

This year I was anxious to repeat the long adventure.  I had recently signed up for Across the Years 48-hour run (Dec 28th) and needed some good, long, flat training.  I chose December 5th to run around the lake again.  I knew it would be colder.  In 2013 I cut out a couple miles by running on railroad tracks in certain sections, but I knew I shouldn’t do that, so this time I chose a route that would be about 84 miles.  The west side of the lake is pretty straight-forward with only one road to take you south, but on the east side with all the roads and towns, you can choose various routes.  This time I let Google Maps decide much of it but still included a mile of trail that hugs the lake at its widest point to avoid a bunch of urban roads and stay on the lake side of I-15.

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At 12:50 a.m. I started my adventure from my home in Saratoga Springs to run around Utah Lake in a counter-clockwise direction. The temperature was in the mid-30s and would dip down into the mid-20s by dawn.  I wore two shirts, a fleece vest, and long tights.  I generally felt comfortable the entire time but had to switch out to warmer gloves and hand warmers at times.  For fluids, I carried two hand-held water bottles, but that became a challenge that you will see later.

The first 29.5 miles is simply straight south down Redwood Road to the little town of Elberta.  I chose to run that road during the night to avoid car traffic.  Only about ten vehicles came by during the night so I had to road mostly to myself.  There are no towns during this stretch, and the only things going on during the night was a gravel pit at Pelican Point and a large dairy farm at Mosida.  There, tanker trucks were coming and going from the very large dairy farm all lit up with lights.  For the last ten miles of this section there is a farm road that parallels the paved road and for a few miles I jumped on that.  It slowed the pace but felt good to get off the pavement.  During the night the lights of the cities across the lake are wonderful sight.  A crescent moon was rising over the Wasatch mountains.

As I looked toward the South, I saw a huge glow behind a hill that was reflected brightly on the clouds above it.  I was puzzled what it was.  First I thought it was the Mosida dairy farm, but no, it was in the wrong place.  Next I thought it was just city lights from Santaquin, but I soon saw those lights.  The huge glow was further to the south and never came into view.  Finally it hit me, it was the electrical plant in the next valley to south west of Mona.  That plant puts out incredible light pollution and I’ve always wondered why it needs to be lit up so brightly.

As I reached the far south end, Elberta at the 5:49 mark, 6:39 a.m.  My pace had been pretty good covering 29.5 miles during that time.  The time passed by fast.  Slow periods were caused by the cold, with a few sections going through an uncomfortable headwind.

Morning traffic was starting to increase which seemed to be people from nearby Eureka or Goshen heading north.  It was still dark as I turned east, running a section of Route 6, normally a busy route with cars going by at 70+ mph.  Thankfully at this hour it was milder but still a few cars didn’t give me much room on the shoulder even though they saw my headlamp.

I reached the little town of Goshen (mile 32) at 6:22.  I was disappointed to discover that the little store there was closed and appeared to be out of business.  I still had some fluids but my bottles were nearly frozen solid now, just allowing only a trickle of unfrozen water.  If I stayed on my current route, I wouldn’t be able to refill at a store until Payson, still 12 miles away.  Since it was still cold, I thought I could manage.

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As I continued on, I had great views of nearby Mount Nebo rising above me to the southeast as the rising sun behind it highlighted its summit. I also ran by the facinating ruins of the Tintic Mill on Warm Springs Mountain.  The mill operated from 1921-25 to process ore from Eureka.  It was abandoned as methods became outdated.

I ran through the rural town of Genoa and the sun rose over the mountains. It immediately warmed me up.  At mile 40 I stopped to shed my vest, hat, and warm gloves.  I had been thawing out one of my bottles by keeping it inside my vest and I could finally start drinking again.  The morning felt wonderful as I ran by acres and acres of fruit orchards and large fruit plants.

I arrived at Payson Main Street (mile 45.6) at 9:27.  I stopped for about a half hour at McDonalds and immediately rehydrated.   Running 9.5 hours with only two water bottles and a bottle of Ensure was really stretching out the fluids and I was getting dehydrated.  Doing it again, I would drop off some fluids somewhere along the way or treat some creek water.

After the break I felt much better and continued on a new road for me, Arrowhead Trail Road that roughly parallels I-15 to Spanish Fork, passing through rural farm land.  I reached the 50-mile mark at 10:48. I then reached Spanish Fork downtown (mile 52) at 11:13 and enjoyed running by all the shops, never before being in this downtown.  I stopped at a store for a donut and more candy for the pockets.

As I continued north on the east side of the lake, I ran north on Main Street with a good shoulder to Springville and then jumped on the frontage road on the east side of I-15.  The actual lake had not been in view since the south end of the lake, but now I was getting very close to it as it extended close to Provo.  After the 1400 N interchange the frontage road turns into a dirt road for access to Utah Lake in order to launch little fishing boats.  This is a nice section away from the city but still close to the Freeway.  Once the road ended, I continued on a trail that at first was a cattle trail and then I ran right along the freeway fence in full view of the afternoon commuters.

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I discovered there was construction going on near the University Avenue interchange, extending the road toward the lake.  This required me to scale several new fences in order to continue, in full view of all the freeway traffic.  But I quickly got through and soon was down on a paved trail to the Lakewood section of southern Provo.  I now followed written directions I had with me to follow I-15 closely, trying to keep up a diagonal northwestern direction.  As I came near to the Provo train station, I was tempted to bail out and take the train to American Fork but I put those thoughts away and continued.  I reached the 100K (62 miles) mark in Provo at 13:43.

I ran near the private school that my wife teaches in and called her to check in.  She offered to come and pick me up, but I declined.  I was still determined to finish this run.

At the intersection of Center Street and Geneva Road, I stopped in at the Subway for a nice feast and to rehydrate.   Running on Geneva Road is a pain because the sidewalks ended and the shoulder was narrow, but the cars behaved well and gave me room.  As I reached Orem, I stopped at a Maverick for a nice cup of hot chocolate that warmed me up nicely.  The sun was going down and it was starting to get chilly.

As Geneva Road crossed under the freeway at Lindon and started to head north to American Fork, I instead crossed back over the Freeway again and ran on a more direct route by I-15.  As I was running near the dump, a guy in a truck stopped and asked if I wanted a ride.  I didn’t try to explain that I was on mile 72 with just 12 miles to go.  I thanked him for the offer.

The sun was now down and it became dark.  At the business park in American Fork by I-15, I stopped in the lighted parking lot to get out my headlamp, and put on my vest, warm gloves, and hat.  This was at mile 74 at 16:49 (5:39 p.m.)  My stop was for five minutes.

I was now on familiar ground where I had run a couple of weeks earlier so I knew how to stay near the freeway, run along the Auto Mall Road, and then connecting to the American Fork frontage road.  I was now pretty exhausted with sore legs from all the pavement. I was successful in at least doing 14-minute miles as I ran by the American Fork train station and into Lehi onto roads I have run on many, many times.  I could see Saratoga Springs lights flickering in the distance so my run was nearly finished.  With two miles to go, I crossed over the outlet for Utah Lake, Jordan River.

Finally I entered my neighborhood and ran the final mile to my home, completing my loop entirely around Lake.  I finished in 19:28 (8:18 p.m.) and covered 84.2 miles.  I beat my previous time of 19:54 which took a shorter 82-mile route. It had been a very long, but fun day.  I gazed across the massive lake, now in the dark with lights flickering miles away and thought about all the miles I covered to run around it.  I actually couldn’t comprehend it.  It didn’t seem possible, but I did it again.

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1 thought on “Run Around Utah Lake – 84 miles

  1. Ryan N.

    I always look forward to reading about your running adventures. It’s just as good as any magazine subscription. In fact, I just got the latest copy of Ultrarunner Magazine in the mail today, had it in my hand, but sat it down to read this instead. I’ve been running trails down here in Tucson for a couple years now, and have a wife and two kids, but love the adventures of running trails, and I admire your ability to get out there and do it as much as you do. Thanks for the good reading entertainment!

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